My Brother's Keeper
by JooseBoxx
Summary: Sarah has rules for her cell phone and Noah usually follow those rules too. But when he texts her in class, and tells her there's a shooter at his school, Sarah's pretty sure the rules don't apply here. Warning; high school shooting, no character death.


**Disclaimer: **Not mine. No money. No affiliation.

When Sarah had been handed her cell phone, at the start of fourth grade, she'd been told by Mama; it was for emergencies only. She got it, she did. Noah might run late sometimes on picking her up, so he'd text to tell her he'd get her at the park, sometimes Jenna would invite Sarah over for dinner after school, so Sarah had to text Noah to let him know not to pick her up. There were the days that soft ball finished early, or when Sarah got bored at the mall with the other girls and she'd text her brother to pick her up or come hang out at the arcade and that was all her phone was for.

She was not to use it during school, she was not to text her friends all the time and she was not to run up a big bill. Noah let her use his phone to talk to Jenna sometimes, when he was in a good mood or when she hadn't bugged him for a while, and that was pretty cool, because Jenna's mom let Jenna do anything with her phone. But Sarah had rules, and she had to follow them. And usually, Noah followed the rules with Sarah too.

Except her phone just beeped in her bag, and Miss. Delaney is looking at her like it's her fault.

"You had better check it," eventually, Miss. Delaney just waves her hand and sighs, because her teacher knows that her mama is a nurse and her brother had been in trouble, so it might be important. Sarah just blushes slightly, because everyone is looking at her, while she fishes her cell out of her back pack. It's a message from Noah, and she's so going to kill him later because this is embarrassing. Opening the message, Sarah's not sure what to think.

_Cll 911. shooter at hgh skool. plic & emt._

"Um, Miss?" Sarah raises her hand, staring at the phone and waits for Miss. Delaney to come over. She knows that Noah plays pranks sometimes, but it's stupid stuff; like rubber spiders in her bed, a basin of cold water on the floor beside her bed in the morning, hiding her toothbrush, swapping the sugar and salt. It's just lame big brother stuff that he does. He'd never do _this_.

"Who is this from?" Miss. Delaney goes kind of pale when she reads it. Usually, Miss. Delaney is a pretty kind of pale, like Quinn is, but this is a more ashen, sickly pale, like old Mrs. Gurdy from Temple.

"My brother," everyone is staring now, but Sarah's feeling less embarrassed and more worried now, "he's a junior at McKinley." Her teacher should know this though, because Noah is on her contact list, Noah's always listed as her contact, because it's hard to get a hold of her mama sometimes, so Noah's always the one that puts down his name for a contact when she goes on class trips.

"Okay, okay," Miss. Delaney doesn't seem to think it's a joke either, handing Sarah back her cell phone and going to pick up the school phone, passing the message on to the headmaster and then hanging up before picking up the phone again. "Hello, my name is Christine Delaney, I work at Keaton Elementary school in Lima," there's a pause for a moment before Miss. Delaney goes on, the whole class sitting quietly, "one of my students received a text message from her brother that there's a shooter at William McKinley High school, yes ma'am, requested police and emergency medical treatment. Thank you, thank you very much." Miss. Delaney sighed as she placed the phone down, running her hands over her light brown hair. "They're on their way, Sarah." She just nods at her teacher, looking at her phone again and Noah's incomplete words and she has this fear that maybe it's the last thing she'll hear from Noah.

_on their way. r u ok?_

It takes her a few minutes to send it, she's too busy wondering if it's a good idea. Her phone made a loud noise, what if Noah's does too? What if she sends this message and it means someone hurts Noah? But she remembers the times when Noah would sit at dinner and text, remembers never hearing the phone go off, so he must put it on silent sometimes, which would make sense. She hits send and holds her breath.

Miss. Delaney leaves the room when there's a knock on the door and Sarah catches sight of a few of the other teachers in the halls. The word must've spread. Dread just sits right there in Sarah's stomach and she wonders just what she's expected to do. The sharp beep of a new message almost startles her.

_gd job. fine dnt wrry._

Don't worry? He wants her not to worry? How can she do that when there's a _shooter _at his school and he needed to text her to get the police there, rather than call them himself? She's watched enough movies with Noah to understand that he probably can't be obvious about something, that maybe he's in a room with the shooter, or one of them, or something like that, which means he can't be seen to be calling them. She knows that Noah has 'mad skills' when it comes to text messaging, sometimes he doesn't even need to look at the phone to text and she'd always asked how he did that. "You'll get there kiddo, you just need the proper motivation." The smirk on his face at the time had stopped her from asking what kind of motivation he'd had, because Sarah was aware that her brother and Santana weren't just 'study buddies' like he told Mama they were.

She sits there for half an hour, the class whispering among themselves and Josh Hill just gives her this small smile that she thinks is meant to be reassuring or something.

"Sarah?" Miss. Delaney appears at the door, waving Sarah out of the class. She's shaking a little when she grabs her backpack and moves; what if the police got there and something bad happened? What if Noah'd been hurt since his last message? What if the police didn't get there in time and they wanted Sarah to, like, identify her brother or something? "Sarah, these officers want to take you over to the high school, they're hoping maybe you and Noah can help them. Okay? Can you do that?" Sarah hates when teachers talk to her like she's five. She's not. She's nine, that's four whole more years. She's way more mature than some of the girls in her class because Noah said she wasn't a baby, because babies can't do the things that they do and that means she's not a baby.

"Yeah," she feels a little of the 'Puckerman badass' seeping in, Noah's always told her that they were badass, they're like rock stars or something. She's not scared of anything and she doesn't need to worry, because Puck's not scared of anything either. "Yeah, I got this." So she gets in the car with two of the police men and they drive the five minutes to the high school. It's a little imposing sometimes, the high school. Sarah kind of can't wait to go to high school, but at the same time, she doesn't want to. Noah said she'll get over that when she's in middle school, and then she'll just be looking forward to the end of school.

Noah sort of hates school, but he didn't before high school, so maybe Sarah will be the same, and she'll like middle school and then just want it over.

"Hey there, I'm Officer Weir, this is Officer Duncan, you must be Sarah." Officer Weir looks like Rachel Berry; she's got dark hair and dark eyes and a pretty tan skin tone. She's not got Rachel's nose, so maybe she's not Jewish, and Officer Duncan looks like a fat, curly haired version of Burt Hummel. "Now, what we're hoping to do Sarah, is figure out where everyone in the school is, and where the shooter is. Do you think your brother could help?"

"I'll see." She doesn't want Noah to get hurt, but she does want to help everyone. That's why Noah texted her in the first place, she's sure of it. He wanted her to get them help and she's gonna show her big brother that she can, that she did.

_polic outsid. where r u? where shooter?_

There was this one time when Noah let her sit up in his room and watch a movie on cable. It was about this high school boy who got teased a lot, he had a terrible home life and all his friends left him to join different groups at school. His dad was a hunter or something, so the boy took his dad's guns to school and started shooting people. That was as far as she saw, because Noah changed the channel and told her to stop watching that Lifetime movie crap. She looked it up online later though, it was a true story that they made into a movie. What if this was just like that? What if one of the students just snapped and started killing everyone?

Sarah wasn't under the illusion that her brother was great with everyone, she knew he was a bit of a jerk, even Finn thought he was a jerk sometimes and Finn was like Noah's best friend. At least until Noah stole Quinn or something. Sarah wasn't sure if she wanted to know how that movie really ended anymore.

_Aditrum. 15 of us. shootr hr 2._

She showed Officer Weir the message, letting her relay it on to the group of officers up by the front of the school. "Sarah, find out if anyone is hurt, please?"

_is any1 hrt?_

Even as she sends the message, she can see the officers up by the doors of the schools going in, they break down the door at the front and start moving in, like they did in the SWAT movie that Noah said was kinda shit, but Samuel L. Jackson was the man. There's kids coming out of the school, cheerleaders stand out because of their uniform and Sarah's pretty sure she sees the goth girl that Noah is in glee with, she's wheeling the geeky kid down the disabled ramp and being taken over to the ambulance to get checked out.

_A cpl. shot a few ppl._

She feels a little sick right then, because Noah's inside there with them all, and the shooter has already shot people. She listens to Officer Weir send information to the others around, the ambulances checking over students and Sarah just trying to see around them all. She just wanted to see Noah, just wanted him to come out and be fine.

"Sarah! Oh, Sarah what's..." Sarah turns around to find Rachel Berry weaving through people, trying to get to her, Finn's behind her, with a bandage on his arm and Sarah just wraps her arms around Rachel's waist when she gets close enough. "Honey, what're you doing here?"

"Noah text me, he got me to call the police. They asked me for help." There's tear stains on Rachel's face, and Sarah's seen Rachel looking sad before. Sometimes she just comes round to their house, all sad and upset and Noah just gets her a glass of water and they go upstairs and listen to music. Sarah doesn't really understand how water and music can help that much, but Rachel always leaves with a small smile on her face.

"Is he okay? Where is he? What's going on?" Finn just stands behind Rachel while she asks all these questions and Sarah wonders if she's always this keyed up or if it's just an excitement/adrenaline/scared thing that does it. It must just be just now, because Noah would never put up with her if she was like this all the time. But Sarah tells them what she knows, that Noah is in the auditorium, that's where the shooter is too, that some people are hurt but the police are moving in, so it should be over soon.

Rachel sits beside Sarah, petting her hair as they both wait and eventually, Sarah gets tired of waiting.

_Rach & Finn r out. saw wheels and goth girl 2._

Rachel just keeps stroking at Sarah's hair and Sarah keeps watching the phone, Noah's not texting back. Noah's not replying to her. What if something happened? What if the police going in and getting most of the students out, what if that made the shooter do something? What if Noah can't text her back because...

"Sarah, sweetie, every thing's going to be okay." She doesn't realise she's crying until Rachel's arm goes around her shoulders and there are wet drops on the screen of her phone. Doesn't Rachel understand? If something happens to Noah, well, who's going to take care of her? Mama's working all the time, and she can't cook for herself yet, she's still too little. Noah does all that for her, Noah's her big brother, he does all the stuff for her, he takes care of her and he-

"What if he's not okay?"

"C'mon, Sarah," Finn gives her that goofy grin that she used to think was kinda adorable but now it's just a bit stupid, "this is _Puck_, nothing can beat Puck." She remembers when Finn used to come over to help Noah look after her, and she'd get them both to play games with her. She always made Noah the dinosaur, because dinosaurs are cool, and Finn was always the giant, because that's what he was. Finn never beat Noah, because Noah was_Puck_. It made her laugh a little, just a little, because her big brother was that much of a dork and so was Finn.

"_Breaching auditorium doors, stand by._" Sarah stares at Officer Weir's back, willing the woman to turn around and tell her that everyone is safe and her brother is coming out, but there's just silence from the woman while everyone around them is reacting to things. Finn moves away, Sarah sees him going over to Brittany and Santana, sees them hug him and that worries her, because Santana only ever hugs Britt, Noah and her. She says hugs are for sissy girls or awesome people, and only the three of them are awesome enough. It's weird, because Santana looks like she's been crying.

There's three loud pops from inside the school and everyone stops, there's nothing on the radio and Sarah grips her phone tightly in her hands as she stares at the school doors. It's all just a bad dream, that's all, she's going to wake up and Noah's going to make fun of her for being so weird and then tell her that she can't watch those movies before bed anymore, then he'll make her breakfast and ruffle her hair and everything will be normal.

"_Building secure, we need paramedics._" It's more rush, there's noise again finally and Sarah watches the emergency personnel run into the building; first aid kits, bags with big white crosses on them, men running with stretchers, it's a little too much like a movie actually. Like she's pretty sure she's seen this all before, maybe it was when Quinn stayed with them last year and she was watching One Tree Hill or something, or maybe it was with her mama when they put on that Julia Stiles Lifetime movie, it might've even been one of Noah's movies, with the action scenes and the clean up afterwards, maybe it was just Kindergarten Cop though, but that had been a fire right?

Students start fleeing down the stairs again, directed by two officers and Sarah twists until she's kneeling on the table she'd been sitting on, Rachel straining to see alongside Sarah. She can recognise some of Noah's football buddies leaving the school, that Dave guy and the idiot one, Mark or something. Then there's a few Cheerio's that Noah dated at one point or something and they all start forming little groups around the grounds. There's a paramedic helping a small boy out, and Sarah realises from Rachel's gasp that this is Kurt from glee and that Mercedes is right beside him. There's a bandage or something held around his head, Mercedes keeping a hand on Kurt's back just as Sam and Mike appear. Mike is down the stairs super fast, heading straight for goth girl -Tina right?- and Sam sort of looks around for something. Sarah thinks it might be Quinn, but Sarah hasn't seen Quinn at all yet.

"Hey!" But Sam sort of spots her, and he's taking the stairs two at a time before jumping the last five and dashing over towards them. Officer Weir steps in front of the blond footballer, even as Rachel shifts towards him. "He wants to see her, just lemme take her to the ambulance, he's freakin' out." Sarah feels her blood chill, and this must be the fear thing that they try and show on television or something, because Sam just shifts around the police woman and reached out to pick Sarah up like she's nothing.

"Where's my brother? What's happening?" Sam doesn't answer, just pushing through all the people with Rachel following. It doesn't take very long for Sarah to notice the rest of the glee kids; Britt and San holding hands and trailing along, Finn marching across to Kurt and Mercedes, helping the smaller boy stand and move, following along behind Britt and San, Mike and Tina and Wheels are following too and Sarah feels her chest tighten so much it hurts. "Noah's hurt, isn't he? Where's Quinn? What's going on?"

No one answers her and she feels the tears streaking down her face as they approach an ambulance with open doors. Sarah sees Quinn first; pretty, smart Quinn with her Cheerio's uniform and sensible white sneakers. Only there's more red on her uniform, red smeared over her chest and arm, down her leg and tears on her cheeks, her eyes are bloodshot and she's holding tightly to a hand and-

"Noah," Sarah scrambles out of Sam's grip, climbing along the inside of the ambulance to reach Quinn's side and see her brother, lying on the stretcher and wearing an oxygen mask. Quinn's free arm wraps around Sarah's waist, hugging her tightly and pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"You did so good, Sarah, so good. See, Puck," Quinn's fingers squeeze at Noah's hand, "she's right here and she's fine, it's all going to be okay now, right." Sarah grips at both Quinn's hand and Noah's, choking on a bit of a sob when she saw her brother nod and smile slightly, squeezing both hers and Quinn's hands back.

"Okay, kids, step back." One of the paramedics got the glee club to move back from the doors, climbing up inside the ambulance, while another closed one door over and then the other and giving the door two hard bumps. The sirens started up and the paramedic moved to do something for Noah while they started moving. "We'll be at the hospital in no time and you'll be fine, son." Sarah didn't let go of Noah or Quinn's hand the entire journey.

She didn't know what had happened to Noah, didn't know how he was hurt or when, didn't know if the boy or girl who had been shooting people had been caught or killed or what. She just knew that Noah got hurt at some point and he was in emergency surgery while she waited, again, in the hospital with Quinn.

All the hospital staff knew about the shooting; there were a few kids from the school there, some with grazes, some with broken bones from trying to escape, there was one footballer there with a bullet in his leg. It had taken fifteen minutes before Sarah had seen her mama, who came rushing through to the E.R waiting room and grabbed Sarah in a fierce hug the moment she'd seen her.

"Baby, are you okay? You didn't get hurt, did you? Oh, Quinn, honey, has someone seen you? Let me get you a doctor, just give me a second."

"No, Mrs. Puckerman, I'm fine, I'm-" Quinn looked down at herself and almost started crying again, "It's not my blood." Sarah hadn't asked, she had tried to ignore the blood on Quinn, tried not to see it. "It's, I'm sorry, it's Noah's." Running the back of her hand under her cheek, wiping away a stray tear, Quinn took a deep breath on a sigh, and Sarah just wrapped her arms around Quinn's waist. "Noah was protecting me," Quinn's voice hitched and Sarah hugged her tighter, "that's why he's in there right now, because he was protecting _me_." Sarah felt her mama move to hug Quinn as well and in an instant the three of them just clung to each other trying to help in whatever way they could.

Somewhere between her mama going back to work, promising to come back the second she could to check on them and making sure a nurse knew to let Quinn and Sarah know the second there was any news on Noah, somewhere between that and the glee club arriving at the hospital, Sarah fell asleep in Quinn's lap. When she woke up she could feel Quinn petting at her hair, her legs drawn up to her chest as she lay over a chair and rested her head on Quinn's thighs. Mike and Tina were sitting opposite her, holding hands tightly and when Sarah started to look around she saw Brittany leaning her head on Santana's shoulder, Finn with an arm around Rachel and both of them staring at the clock on the wall like it would tell them something. When Sarah started to sit up, Quinn's hand stroking down her back as she did, she noticed that the waiting room was full of teenagers and a few adults. Sam was on the other side of Quinn, but he wasn't holding her hand or touching her, Mercedes and Artie hanging close to Kurt, who looked a little pale and woozy with his head bandaged up.

"Is he okay?" Sarah asked it quietly, but she got the attention of the entire club.

"Don't worry," Kurt smiled at her, even if he did look a little worse for wear with blood matted hair and his collar stained, "I'll be fine. It's just a bump." They seemed to think they needed to protect her from the truth or something, but she knew it wasn't a bump, because there was blood. A bump was when she bruised her knee on the coffee table in the living room when she was in a rush in the morning, a bump was when Noah took a hard tackle during football, a bump was their mama bashing her elbow on the door frame trying to unstick the microwave door. Blood stains didn't come from bumps.

"Family for Puckerman?" Sarah practically leapt from her seat when the doctor called her brother's name, Quinn standing up too and grabbing Sarah's shoulders. "Mrs. Puckerman has already been informed over the pager, but Noah is out of surgery and doing well." There was a huge sigh from the club and Sarah notice that they weren't the only ones listening in, there were a good few people around the waiting area that seemed to smile and nod when they heard. "We were able to remove the bullet from Noah's chest and repair the damage to his lung, the second bullet did minimal damage to his torso so we stitched what we could and he should make a full recovery." Rachel sobbed a little as she turned into Finn, hugging him close and Sarah felt Quinn's hands tighten on her shoulders. Raising her hands, Sarah gripped both of Quinn's hands in her own.

"Will we be able to see him?"

"I'm sorry, but at this point it's family only. Visiting hours are eight until nine and two until four. You'll be able to see him then. Noah will be moved to an observation ward and kept in for a few days to make sure everything is okay with his breathing before we'll be letting him home." Most of them seemed disappointed, and Sarah felt a little selfish, but she was mostly glad that she'd get Noah to herself for the most part. "I understand that Quinn Fabray and Sarah Puckerman are here?"

"That's us," Quinn said, her arm dropping to wrap around the front of Sarah's chest.

"Mrs. Puckerman expressed that the two of you would be allowed to see him once we've got Noah settled into his room." The doctor looked at his chart before glancing back at them, "Are you Noah's girlfriend?"

"I'm the mother of his child." Sarah heard the small gasp from behind her, she even glanced towards Sam, because she was pretty sure she'd heard Santana mention to Noah when he got out of juvie that Quinn was dating Sam now, but Quinn didn't exactly look to be all that close to Sam right then.

"Okay, one of the nurses will come to see you once Noah's settled. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a few more anxious families to talk to." Quinn nodded, one of the teachers stepping forward to shake the doctor's hand before Quinn just hugged tighter to Sarah.

"He's gonna be okay, kiddo." Sarah just smiled softly. Of course he was, he was Noah _freakin' _Puckerman, right?

Slowly but surely, teens and adults around the hospital disappear. There's a steady flow of people leaving the ER and most of them look like they're high school kids. When Sarah and Quinn are led to Noah's room, given chairs and left to sit with him until he wakes up, Quinn starts talking.

"Everything was completely normal at first. Just another day. But between periods, there was some screaming and shouting and no one seemed to really know what was happening. There were a group of us by the lockers, Sam was standing beside me and Kurt and Mercedes were a little along the hall. Puck was just walking past," she laughs a little as her fingers grip to Noah's tightly, "I think he was on his way to skip maths again. But then there was noise, just this loud, deafening bang and I think that's when someone noticed the gun." Sarah hears her mama enter the room, closing the door behind her quietly, but Quinn doesn't stop. "We were sort of pushed towards doors and down a hall, led to the auditorium and Sam just held my hand the whole time, keeping me behind him. Puck made sure Mercedes and Kurt were always covered by him and the rest were scared and huddling together. He made us sit along the base of the stage and started shouting and screaming about something. I was crying and Mercedes and I were clinging to each other and then I noticed Puck, texting in his pocket." She laughed again, running her hand up Noah's arm in a stroking motion and Sarah couldn't help but smile just a little, because she knew that no matter what he said, Noah still liked Quinn a lot.

"One of the footballers said something to him and- and he just... I don't even know what happened, he was just sitting there the one second and the next he was- I've never seen anyone _die _before." Sarah wants to go and hug Quinn again, but her mama beats her to it, holding Quinn like Quinn held Sarah in the waiting room, stroking her hair. "He said some things about acceptance and not being included and, God I've watch the high school shooting genre, the movies and shows and all the little documentaries that seem like they'd be interesting, but they just don't prepare you for that kind of fear. He shot a Cheerio in the leg, I'm pretty sure that it was Amber, but I can't even remember faces beyond the crying and Puck just told us to keep her heads down and not to say anything. He said that we were gonna get out okay and just to keep quiet." It's strange, hearing what happened inside. It feels like it was hours and hours of waiting, but in reality, Sarah's found out that she was only sitting outside the school for one hour.

The siege on McKinley High lasted one hour and forty seven minutes.

"Sam said something. I wasn't listening, but when the shooter was talking and rambling, Sam said something and it drew his attention to us. He was pointing the gun at Kurt and, God," Quinn's voice shakes again, "I just grabbed his hand and pulled him towards Mercedes and I and hoped and hoped and _hoped _that nothing would happen to us. I can't even remember how Kurt got hurt."

"He fell." Mama says it softly, "He told the nurse who stitched him up that he fell on the way out, trying to get help, that it was just a little bump against the chairs in the auditorium." Quinn sobbed on a laugh.

"I wanted to protect him, like Sam and Puck were trying to protect us. Puck kept his attention off of us. We could hear things happening out in the halls and Puck stopped him from noticing by keeping his attention focused on him. Sam started to pull Mercedes and Kurt and me behind him, but the shooter noticed and pointed the gun at me and Puck just... He just-" She's staring at Noah's face, this small smile on her lips as her cheeks are streaked with tears again. "He stepped in front of me."

Sarah knew her brother was badass. He didn't just say that stuff, 'cause he was. Noah was the one that fixed all the broken stuff around the house, that fixed her toys when she broke them, he was the one that told Mama's boyfriends to take a hike when they started to think they were his and her dad just 'cause they were dating Mama for a while. Noah was badass because he didn't sleep some nights and still took her to school in the morning, and he totally took her around the neighbourhood to sell cookies for girl scouts and even went into the Lima Heights Adjacent to get some of the sales. He said pot-heads always needed snacks. Noah was badass because when he fell off his skateboard and skinned his whole arm he didn't even flinch, he took hits at football that made him puke and he never said anything. He went out and worked super hard when Quinn was pregnant just to pay the bills himself and not make Mama have to work more, he was doing hundreds of hours of community service, but he never said it wasn't his fault and he just told Sarah that she needed to be a little smarter than his dumbass impulsive self.

So Sarah knows that Noah is badass, he's tough and he's brave and he's her big brother because he's awesome. But he needs to figure out that he's not like that Superman dude in the movie because when he gets shot it doesn't just bounce off him.

She falls asleep again. After listening to Quinn tell her what was going on while she was sitting outside, hoping for another text message from her brother. Quinn or Mama cover her up with a blanket and let her sleep in the big, cushy chair. She thinks she has a nightmare, but she can't remember really, she just wakes up with a fright and hears her heart beating really hard in her chest. She thinks there was some blood in the dream. Then she hears Quinn's soft, quiet voice.

"You scared me so bad," she's not sitting on the chair anymore, she's perched on the edge of Noah's bed, but she's still holding his hand and Sarah can see that Noah's fingers are curled around Quinn's. "I thought that was it, that was the last thing you'd ever say to me."

"Be a good thing, what I said. Meant it." Sarah nearly jumps up, hearing Noah's voice. It's scratchy, like when he's super hung over and pleads with her to just give him another fifteen minutes to sleep and he'll even let her come and cuddle if he can just get those fifteen minutes.

"I don't want our last conversation to be on the floor of the auditorium with you bleeding." Noah's hand tightens on Quinn's fingers, sitting in her lap and Sarah sees Quinn reach over to pet at Noah's mohawk. "I want us to be really old, and really grey, and to be arguing about who's turn it is to take out the trash or to be laughing at grandkids. I want that conversation to be _years _away."

"Kinda thought that was it, y'know." Sarah's struck by the thought that he could've died. That he thought he was going to die and Sam running to get her hit her as maybe Noah thinking it was his last chance to see her.

"It wasn't. And now," Quinn sniffs slightly, "now we have more time and- and I still- God, Noah, I love you." Quinn leans over, kissing Noah gently and Sarah sees the little smile on her brother's lips and she's super glad she didn't interrupt them, because if Noah should get something out of this, it's definitely the girl.

"No-No." But she doesn't feel bad about interrupting the kissing stuff, 'cause it's totally gross and yuck and Quinn and Noah shouldn't be doing that stuff in a hospital bed with her like right _there _next to them. Quinn pulls back, wiping her eyes and Sarah wonders if Quinn ever runs out of tears, but like, not in a bad way, it's just that Quinn seems to cry a lot.

"Hey, Squirt." She's careful as she climbs onto the bed, moving to sit on the other side of Quinn and perch near Noah's hip. She grabs his free hand in hers and doesn't let go, because it's been super scary and she just wants to be sure and Noah's still there. "You were totally awesome, kiddo. Like, almost as badass as me." Sarah grins.

"I had an awesome teacher." Mama's going to be mad at Noah for saying 'ass' in front of her, but considering what's happened, Sarah's pretty sure Mama'll go easy on him. They get to sit and talk for a little while until Mama comes by with a doctor and Quinn and Sarah need to go home for a while. Sarah doesn't have anyone to watch her, and Quinn needs to change out of the Cheerio's uniform. She'd washed the blood off her arms and legs and wrapped up in a letterman jacket, and Sarah only just noticed that it wasn't Sam's but it was Noah's, and Finn or Rachel or Santana must've brought it to the hospital. Quinn says that she can come back to her house, and Finn's the one to drive up to the hospital to pick them up.

"How's he doing?" Sarah sits between Quinn and Finn in the truck, absently watching the trees past and leaning against Finn, he's got an arm around her like he used to do when he was the one driving instead of Noah, Sarah doesn't really mind, because Finn's like another brother, he's just not as cool as her real brother.

"Okay, I think. He woke up after the sedation wore off. Talked a little. He remembers everything so there isn't much worry of a concussion," Sarah didn't realise that he'd hit his head, "and they're pretty sure he'll be okay in a few weeks or so." Mama said it would take 'extensive healing' for Noah's chest to be back to normal. She felt really bad for Noah, 'cause it meant he wouldn't be playing football anymore this year and he'd said that the new coach was really good, scary and a hard ass, but badass in her own way. Sarah thinks it's weird that guys are supposed to be the ones that get to do all the awesome sports, but the best coaches at McKinley are chicks.

"That's good, that's great. Are they keeping him in hospital for a few days?"

"Yeah, they want to make sure his lung is working okay." Sarah tunes out the rest of their conversation, because she listened to the doctor and Mama talking as well and she knows that it'll be a few days before Noah comes home, and it'll probably be a few more before he can do anything but lie in bed or on the couch. She doesn't mind, she just wants him safe and sound and being her brother again.

Sarah's never met Mrs. Fabray before. She's heard Noah and Quinn talk about her, back when Quinn was pregnant and living with them, but she'd never really thought about what she'd be like. When Finn drops them off, Quinn's car is already at the house and he says Santana got it for her, Mrs. Fabray is already standing at the door. Sarah's getting pretty good at being able to tell when people have been crying.

"Quinnie," Quinn's grabbed in a tight hug, one a little like when Mama'd seen her and Quinn at the hospital yesterday. "How is the boy? Everyone's okay, right?" Quinn just nods, and Sarah realises that Quinn either talked to her mom yesterday or someone else did.

"Mom, this is Sarah, Puck's little sister. Their mom is still at the hospital and there wasn't anyone to watch her so,"

"Yes, of course, come on, let's get you inside." Quinn showers and Mrs. Fabray makes some breakfast, even though Sarah's not hungry really, Mrs. Fabray says she needs to eat something or she'll make herself sick. The oatmeal is kinda nice anyway. Quinn offers to run a bath for her, but Sarah's okay with a shower and even though they'll never fit her, Quinn leaves out a little t-shirt and a pair of shorts for Sarah to change into. Mrs. Fabray washes Sarah's clothes for her and Quinn's Cheerio uniform is put in the bin. "That coach can't say anything, we'll pay for a new one." Quinn doesn't argue.

The three of them sit on the sofa and watch some talk shows. Sarah's not all that tired, but Quinn just cuddles her on the sofa and Mrs. Fabray just holds on to Quinn as well. Santana and Brittany call in the afternoon to see that they're okay and Sam calls Quinn once. It's the only time that Quinn leaves her on her own, sitting on Quinn's bed to flip through a magazine while Mrs. Fabray cleans up the kitchen. Sarah doesn't listen to Quinn's quiet conversation in the hall, she doesn't need to, she's pretty sure Quinn's breaking up with her boyfriend.

Sarah would feel bad for Sam, she knows that Noah kind of likes the guy too, but it's not like Quinn and Noah don't have history, it's not the sort of thing that just goes away during the summer like they both pretended it did. Sarah's not stupid enough to believe Noah when he said he just felt like breaking something and that's why he ended up in juvie and their mama ended up cursing him out when he got home. Sarah knows that Noah's mood swings aren't just him being a stupid boy, it's because of Quinn and Beth and how Noah doesn't really deal with feelings all that well. So if Quinn's breaking up with Sam so that she can be with Noah again then Sarah can't feel that bad about it, but when she goes back to school she'll totally give Stacy a box of girl scout cookies for her brother for free. That's kinda like saying sorry.

"You wanna go back to the hospital?" It's the easiest question to answer _ever_.

#

Mama lets Sarah stay off school the next two days and then it's the weekend. Noah comes home on Saturday and it's a good thing that their apartment is on the bottom floor because he can barely walk from the car to the front door without it tiring him out. Sarah and Carole made him a little fort on the sofa in the sitting room to start off with, because the doctors said he can't be doing much and he'll get tired a lot. It's something about the medication they gave him for the pain. Noah spends the weekend sleeping on the sofa, eating soup when Mama forces him and watching television with Sarah. His glee club come to visit and the football coach and his Spanish teacher, it's funny how he falls asleep half way through Rachel and Finn's visit, but it doesn't look like Rachel minds all that much.

Sarah needs to go to school on Monday while Noah's allowed to move back into his bedroom to stay and their landlord's wife says that she'll check on him through the day since Mama needs to go back to work. School is a little weird, like people keep asking her about the school shooting, although it's been on the news already and everyone knows. Five students died at McKinley, the shooter was killed by the police and Sarah can't make herself feel sorry for him at all because he almost killed her big brother. But there were a lot of people hurt and it's stupid how people keep trying to make it sound _cool _that Sarah was at a shooting at the school.

"My big brother nearly died. Ask me about it again and I'll punch you in the throat." She glares at one of the older kids, and Sarah knows how to use the Puckerman glare just as good as she can use the puppy dog eyes. She doesn't even get sent to see the Principal so she's pretty sure that Miss. Delaney doesn't blame her for losing it with the other kids. Quinn picks her up from school every day that week, coming over to the house to just look after her and sit with Noah. Noah sleeps a lot of the time, but other times the three of them will lie in his room and watch television or Quinn will talk about things at McKinley and how everything's starting to get back to normal, Sarah tells Noah about the new trick she can do on his skateboard and Quinn will make dinner for their mama coming home. She usually goes home after dinner, but Mama lets her have a few minutes with Noah alone in his room and Sarah thinks that Mama doesn't dislike Quinn as much as she used to.

Two weeks after he was shot, Noah's allowed to go back to school. Mama's freakin' out a little, like he was five and it's his first day or something and Sarah just laughs at his face 'cause she can tell he's getting a little pissed off with all her worrying.

"Ma, it's fine." Mama looks about ready to cry, but she just runs her hand over Noah's cheek and strokes Sarah's hair and Sarah shares a look with Noah. Mama's gonna be totally over protective for a good long time and Sarah's pretty sure that she's not walking to the mall on her own anymore. "Quinn's picking us up any minute Ma, could you pull yourself together a little?"

Sarah doesn't know if Noah and Quinn are like, officially boyfriend and girlfriend again, or if Quinn's just grateful and Noah's just accepting the help, but Quinn holds Noah's hand a lot and he never says anything about it, and Sarah's pretty sure that they've been kissing and stuff.

When Quinn rings the doorbell, Sarah bounces over to answer, leaving Mama to fuss over Noah a little bit more, reminding him about his pain meds and that he needs to take it easy and that he's not allowed to do any rough stuff at school. Sarah's pretty sure that Noah will milk it for everything it's worth, including getting out of classes or just sleeping through them, but she doesn't tell Mama that.

"Hey Quinn, we're nearly ready." Quinn just grins at Sarah, pulling lightly on her little ponytail and closing the door behind her as she comes into the apartment. "Mama's treating Noah like he's in pre-school again. Maybe you can save him? I'm gonna go get my bag." Sarah let Quinn head towards Noah and Mama, going into her room to grab her school bag and take her phone off its charger.

She makes sure to check that it's not on silent, so that if it does go off in class, she'll hear it. When she gets back to Noah and Quinn, Mama's finally stopped fussing and they're ready to go. Quinn and Noah are holding hands again and Sarah knows it's not just reassurance for Quinn anymore. She still waits until they are like two minutes from her school to ask, because she knows that Noah's an idiot about things sometimes.

"Are you Noah's girlfriend now, Quinn?" Noah starts coughing, and she feels a little bad because sometimes he coughs a lot and it hurts his chest and Quinn keeps glancing over at him but he just raises a hand and shakes his head. Quinn smirks as she meets Sarah's eyes in the rear-view mirror.

"Yes, Sarah, I'm Noah's girlfriend." She doesn't say anything else, just resting her hand on Noah's leg and Sarah grins to herself in the back seat until they pull up at her school and she gets out. Quinn's picking her up after class and they're all going to the mall if Noah feels up to it, she's pretty sure Noah will, just so that he gets out of the apartment for a while longer.

Sarah waves as she heads off to school, watching Quinn lean over to kiss Noah quickly before she drives off and for the first time in two weeks, Sarah's perfectly happy to be at school.


End file.
